


Burn Ban

by letbygones



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Anger Management, Angst with a Happy Ending, Breakups, Drabble, Emotional Dysregulation, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:54:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23785129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letbygones/pseuds/letbygones
Summary: You destroyed him, and you apologized. There were no flames and no horns. There were no precious layers to tear into, and no gift waiting for him at your core. There was only yourself, your anger, and Galo Thymos.
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 1
Kudos: 55





	Burn Ban

Galo's new studio apartment is still empty, but there's already a place for you to sleep.

You insist you don't need the air mattress-- it's too big and too loud, and it's fragile enough that you worry you'll puncture the plastic (as if there's any part left of your soft, smaller body that's sharp anymore).

You stand by the electrical outlet, barefoot and naked from the waist down, waiting for your water to boil. He's plugged in a kettle for you, but something about the wattage isn't right. It keeps tripping the circuit and clicking off mid-use, and though Galo keeps trying his best to reset the outlet, you tell him you don't want tea anymore.

It's not the truth, but it feels like the truth.

He gives you a look that could tear apart your bullshit like wrapping paper. You hate it when he does that. He's trying to get to know you, and he's been digging into you as destructively as possible; you trust him enough to visit him and fuck him, but beyond that, you can't let him know there's no treasure inside to keep digging for.

But you let him do it. You've always enjoyed attention, after all.

You like the way he rubs your back after you wake up from nightmares. You like the way he helps you shower off after long days at work, where the both of you move palettes of emergency supplies and distribute tents when the shelters exceed capacity. You love his smile and his charisma and his willingness to be proven wrong, and you love his teeth on your neck, and his weight on your chest, and the friction of your skin against carpet.

You don't like making him upset.

"You don't have to sugarcoat things for me, yeah?" he says, when the air mattress is inflated and you've got a mug of tea in your hands anyway. "I can tell when you're keeping stuff to yourself. Just rip loose, I can take it. I'm a grown-ass adult, Lio."

You wish you weren't having this conversation after sex. Your underwear's still in the wash. You fold your legs up into yourself.

"Most of the time," you bite back, harsher than you mean to. Quickly, you reel yourself back in. "...Sorry."

Galo doesn't flinch. 

"Don't apologize. Gimme more of that," he urges, rolling on his side to face you. "Be a dick! Where's the Lio Fotia with the horns and the dragon and stuff?"

"That wasn't me. That was a mistake."

"Calling BS on that," he says, which pisses you off even more. "Just 'cuz you don't like the way you acted back then doesn't mean you can just _disown_ it."

_Watch me_.

But instead of fighting him, you close your eyes and count to fifty, listening to the steady chirping of grasshoppers in the bushes outside. It's summer now, and you haven't heard grasshoppers since you were fifteen and flameless.

You were angry back then too, but you never had to hide it.

He doesn't press you for an answer after that, but he does try to touch you. Again, you let him, and he gently runs a fingertip along the naked skin of your thigh. It's an apology, you realize, even though Galo Thymos has nothing to apologize for.

Gently, you lay down next to him.

"I don't want to... subject you to that again," you finally say, breathing him in. "I don't want to let my emotions get the better of me."

He traces his fingers along the ridges of your hipbone, and even through the fabric of the big shirt you stole from him, it tickles. 

"You're not gonna set a whole city on _fire_ this time, though," he says. It stings to hear, even if it's true. "Next time you need to blow off steam, just. You know. Express yourself. Get it all done n' over with."

"What if I hurt you," you hear yourself saying before you can stop your mouth from moving. "What if I say something that ruins us?"

Galo shrugs. "Idk. What if?"

"Wow, thanks for taking this seriously."

"I am," Galo says, and you know in your heart that he's honest. "I just don't think it's super healthy to pretend to be this... perfect, quiet version of yourself now. I know that's not you. So what if you make me feel bad, huh?" He tugs you in closer, and your throat closes up. "Own it, apologize to me, and we'll figure it out from there."

You feel the tips of your ears heat up, and you crave nothing more than your flames-- the alien fire that left you four months ago, the scapegoat for your weaponized fury. 

You're hoarse when you tell Galo you overreacted, once, and you accidentally burnt a man's legs for life.

Galo points out it wasn't your fault, and it's never been your fault, no Burnish but Kray Foresight is guilty-- but Galo's wrong about you. You'll still hurt people, without the Promare. You'll still wreck what you have and destroy anything that threatens you, if you're not careful.

"That's different," he mutters, hands around your waist, lips against your hair. You're facing away from him so he doesn't see your eyes. "Lio, that's like. Normal stuff. Human stuff. No one is blameless."

You turn your face down against the flocked plastic of the air mattress. It still smells like a factory.

When you don't answer him, he kisses the back of your head, and rolls over for the night. "Things will be okay. You'll see."

Twenty minutes later, the drying machine stuffed into the tiny bathroom shuts off. You could retrieve your clothes, but you tuck against Galo instead.

You have your first real fight a month later, so you leave his new studio apartment, and you hurt so bad you can't eat.

But in the end, he's right:

You destroyed him, and you apologized. There were no flames and no horns. There were no precious layers to tear into, and no gift waiting for him at your core. There was only yourself, your anger, and Galo Thymos.

You don't figure things out. You part, amicably enough to keep working together at Station 3. 

But you try again a year later, when you've let yourself come to terms with your humanity. When you're ready. When he's ready.

You find your old socks stuck in the space behind his washing machine, and you believe him this time.

Maybe things can turn out okay.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Not sure where this originated from as I've only heard it thru the fandom grapevine, but ig JYB explained Lio's need to stay calm and collected as a way to keep his emotional/literal firepower in check? I love me some of that. I don't personally experience anger much but I appreciate it as an emotion and I wanna reclaim it for myself eventually so I love holding it up to the light and looking at it :3


End file.
